MIAMI -- At least eight legal observers were arrested during the Free
Trade Area of the Americas meetings and four of those were beaten by
police, the National Lawyers Guild announced Saturday, while dozens of
protesters arrested during the weeklong event were issued bond.
Heidi Boghosian, the guild's executive director, said her group
of legal observers had been unfairly targeted by police, a claim
disputed by Miami police spokesman Delrish Moss.
"We know this is intentional," Boghosian said.
The New York-based National Lawyers Guild said it arranged for
about 60 neutral observers, mostly law students and lawyers, to monitor
police during the protest for possible civil rights abuses. The guild
identifies itself as a progressive bar association that pushes for the
rights of workers and minorities and fights for civil liberties.
Moss was not familiar with the individual cases, but said police
would have only arrested observers if they broke the law. The group's
observers wore neon green hats in an effort to distinguish themselves
from the throngs of protesters.
"Legal observers would not be arrested if they were simply
observers," he said. "If they crossed the line and were actually to do
something like pick up a rock or bottle and throw it, they would move
from observer to criminal."
Thousands of protesters descended in Miami last week to
demonstrate against the trade meeting, where 34 trade ministers met to
discuss the creation of the world's largest free trade area. The
protests were sometimes violent, leading to about 200 demonstrators
being arrested.
More than 50 jailed protesters appeared Saturday before Circuit
Judge Manny Crespo on misdemeanor charges including disobeying police
orders to disperse, unlawful assembly and resisting arrest. Most of the
protesters were issued bonds ranging from $100 to $1,000.
Crespo withheld judgment for some who entered pleas, but ordered them to stay away from the area near the adjoining Miami-Dade County jail for five days.
In another courtroom, Judge Alex Ferrer refused to reduce bond
for five people arrested on felony charges, and ordered the bond court
to rehear the cases of four others. The nine had been issued bonds
ranging from $1,000 to $25,000 on charges including possession of
burglary tools to battery of a police officer.
Ferrer also refused to appoint a public defender to six women who
did not give their names to authorities, saying they were not proven to
be indigent.
In a letter sent Thursday to Miami Mayor Manny Diaz, the Lawyer's
Guild said police used indiscriminate, excessive force against hundreds
of nonviolent protesters.
"The reports that we're getting is that they've really never seen
anything like this in terms of police arresting people without
provocation," Boghosian said.
Police officials, though, have maintained that protesters were
given appropriate warning time to disperse from an area before choosing
to clear it with force.
"The police officers that I saw out there used tremendous
restraint and did the best they could to handle a hard and violent
situation in some cases," Moss said.
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